>> this is like sandra fluke on steroids. stuart: if your employer provides the venue for which you are injured, then your employer -- we could go on and on and on, but we will not. dagen and connell, you are next. dagen: i am dagen mcdowell. connell: good morning, everybody. i am connell mcshane. everyone reacting to the speaker of the house and his backup plan for the debt crisis. we will get some details from the nation's capital on this. dagen: think those photos are yours and only yours? instagram says it could use your photos in ads, if it wants to. connell: this could cost us.

the next on bank account adds. dagen: nicole 5 on the new york stock exchange. nicole: this is unbelievable. we continue to get the headlines out of washington. we have boehner coming out with plan b. we are getting harry reid response saying that speaker banners -- boehner approach is very far away. the markets have managed to move back higher. there is a look at the nasdaq. the dow is a winner of about

.5%. connell: let's follow up on this breaking news on the speaker of the house john boehner. dagen: richardson is live in washington, d.c. with what the heck. rich: the house will vote as early as this week to extend tax rates for those making less than a million dollars a year. house speaker john boehner says he is still negotiating plan a with president obama. the reason for the backup plan, speaker boehner says, after optimism, the white house is latest offer has soured the mood within republicans. >> it was essentially a $1.3 trillion in new revenues

for only $853 billion in net spending reductions that is not balanced in my opinion. rich: there are substantial differences. the speaker is willing to allow a rate hike on those earning less than, excuse me, more than 1 million. speaker boehner wants a $1 trillion in spending cuts. you take away interest savings, you are looking at about $930 billion. the white house wants four years of debt ceiling authority. they were discussing giving him one year authority to raise the debt ceiling the house. other proposals later this afternoon and house leadership. pushing their members to support this. harry reid says boehner backup

plan cannot pass the senate. dagen: thank you. joining us now with more apt fox news political analyst, juan williams. >> i think they will get a deal. >> right now there's whole plan b thing is part of him trying to get his troops and line. the congressman from utah has been outspoken. he does not like to deal as it is being shaped right now. the fact that they are going back and forth is a clear signal that they are on the edge of something. i think what you are seeing right now, the talk of a plan b being shot down by senator reed, we know we are at a disadvantage politically in this deal, but we are not out of ammunition and we

will still make the case to try to force president obama to give us an even better deal. dagen: if you just focus on the income cutoff on the tax increases, it would be $400,000 set up $1 million. secondly, does it seem that the tax rates are going up, for at least some folks in this country. >> everybody's tax rates will go up some. yes. definitely for some people who make more than 400,000. i think that they will get a deal and the problem is that obama and the democrats, if they give us what everyone calls the way they index social security, that is a big one for democrats. it makes them less likely to agree to any concessions in

terms of additional infrastructure. extending that unemployment benefits, there will have to be some meeting of the minds. dagen: to you think that the democrats will agree with what the president has put on the table. >> one of the key things we have seen is, i think there has been a shift in political psychology, if you will. i think people want a deal. they want a deal badly. right now the details are becoming less important. stabilizing this very fragile

recovery, not creating a situation where people have a sense there is more uncertainty. they realized the private sector has complained about uncertainty over the course of the last two to three years. that is why they are now putting their profits into additional hiring and investment. dagen: merry christmas. connell: our next guest says the markets are ignoring some warning signs. we have phil orlando. what are we ignoring, phil? >> it has rallied about seven or 8% over the last couple of weeks while we are getting close to a deal and everyone is very excited that we may not go over the cliff, no one has focused on the terms of the deal.

dagen: taxes go off on those who make more than 400,000 a year, how will that hurt the economy our gdp forecast for next year at 1.6% is below consensus. the consensus is not that much higher. that good. we ought to be growing at 4%. the negative economic impact from a cliff, communists are embedding some of that into their forecast. connell: we are talking about marginal differences in terms of what they come out of washington, would it make that much different if they cut it off at 400,001,000,000? >> i think it would. we wrote a piece about this. connell: tell us what your case would be? >> here exactly is the point.

the president said that millionaires and billionaires ought to pay more taxes. if you live in a good school district and a high tax state with a kid in college at 50k a year, you are not rich making $250,000 a year. we think that speaker boehner had a good suggestion. now, the president has countered at 400,000. not optimal, but, certainly better than 250. dagen: will they get it under control to the point of you would be willing to buy federal treasury. >> all of the focus has been on the revenue side of the equation. the big enchilada is on the spending side of the equation. particularly entitlement reform.

dagen: do the details matter as much on that side doesn't matter what the mixes on the spending side. >> i think it matters a lot. the market recognizes that from entitlement standpoint, we have an unsustainable trajectory. dagen: clearly, the market recognizes that with the ted year under 2%. >> flight to safety, not based upon the fact that we have $16 trillion in debt. the issue is, everyone recognizes, particularly the congressional budget office, we need to sit down,. connell: that is like the safety

situation. >> certainly, given the expensive nature of what the federal reserve is doing, they are trying to keep interest rates low to try to be able to support induce rates of that that. connell: phil, thank you. dagen: fears we could see another line of online banking attacks. connell: instagram says it has the right to sell your pictures. we will get the good, the bad and the ugly on that. here is a look at the markets. oil is 87.87. ♪

connell: markets know, a quarter past the hour. talking about nokia. nicole: this is one of the most heavily shorted stocks and

europe. we are going to change the tone here. it is up about 7% at the moment, folks who look at this and look at it very carefully say it is broken through key resistance levels. hedge funds managers cut their short place that they put on this one, they say the stock has broken out of a pattern. this is a v shaped bottom. now it is jumping. ljubljana helping nokia. up 7% today. dagen: it is time to make money with charles payne. charles: global shipping, you guys remember a couple years go

this was unstoppable. jingo is one of the big players in this whole space. they have 62 of all types and sizes. i know we spent so much time talking about europe and greece. the rest of the world is absolutely on fire, where people obviously focus on is china. in september, they approved infrastructure projects. love the way the stocking is acting the last couple of days. dagen: you are bullish on the global economy. charles: for a while now. connell: you are not worried about china athol?

charles: i think china is going to continue to be on a roll. i am also impressed with brazil, indonesia and turkey. the rest of the world really doing extraordinarily well. connell: we like when you go global on us, charles. what do you use, google maps or apple? charles: stuart varney is probably better than me when it comes to these smart phones. connell: i do remember when you got away from the flip phone. charles: that is only because i left it in the green room. i heard someone from the smithsonian came up. dagen: charles, thank you so much.

connell: let's go to this google graphic story. it is a very popular app. let's put it that way. we will talk about that coming up. more from washington, the house speaker ready to put through his own legislation. >> our hope continues to be to reach an agreement with the president what we have offered meets the definition of balance. the president is not there yet. ♪ ♪

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>> it is 22 minutes past the hour. i have your fox news minute. school is back in session and newtown, connecticut, with the exception of sandy hook elementary. meanwhile, mourners paying final

respects to two more students killed in that tragic shooting. government officials say that the -- is working to stabilize the condition. they have not decided if he will be treated in baghdad or another country. a harvard university astronomer is think the device is stumbling in space and officials have not picked up any transmissions. that is to sign pointing to it being inactive at this point. back to you, dagen. dagen: thank you very much. let's talk about these markets. we have a pretty nice rally going on. gold is down. we have gains across the board it was the biggest game of the month, so far.

over 10 million, and just 48 hours. the number of copies of google maps downloaded. there is the google stock price today. u.s. government hitting toyota with a record $17.4 million fine. it delayed a safety recall. remember 2010, over 48 william dollars for three violations when you think of christmas dinner, i don't think you're thinking mcdonald's. it is what the fast food corporation is hoping you think about.

the one day help it to post sales growth overall in november. i do not know. christmas dinner at mcdonaad's. dagen: it depends on who is doing the cooking at your house. connell: is a mcgriff is a better option, you have some problems at home. dagen: peace, love and mcrib. connell: your money is at stake. the next round of bank cyber attacks. it could mean that money is being pulled from your accounts. markets are up. if there is some optimism, they will figure things out and back

d.c. ♪

connell: we will go back to the breaking story. speaker of the house saying there is a plan b in case the negotiations with the president fail. dagen: rich edson is in washington. rich: in the house, republicans

will vote on a backup plan. a vote to shield those from a tax increase. as for the talks between the president and speaker, president obama wants 300,000 more. boehner wants 1 trillion in spending cuts. when you take away interest savings, the white house is not about 930 billion speaker boehner says the president needs to move towards a better balance. >> i have made it clear to the president that i would put a trillion dollars of revenue on the table if he was willing to put a trillion dollars of spending reductions on the table, that, at this point, would be my version of a

balanced approach. rich: harry reid says speaker boehner plan b is the farthest thing from a balanced approach. it cannot pass both houses of congress. a vote in the house is likely thursday on plan b. connell: the white house has now rejected the speakers plan b saying it does not ask enough of the wealthiest americans on taxes. those that put us to plan c or something? rich: a lot of these things have to do with john boehner trying to sell things. first, he wants the best deal possible, but he also has to make sure that he has the majority of house republicans to go along with this.

dagen: it is 32 minutes past the hour. time for stocks now. nicole: this is a value of $1.26 billion in cash. arbitron up about 24%. that is because this deal really is at a 20%. from yesterday's deal. arbitron is a media and marketing research company. i gave you the terms of the deal. you see it right now. arbitron is at 4707 the dow is up nearly 80 points as we speak. dagen: a new round of cyber

attacks aimed at you and your money. >> this comes out of a posting from a cyber crook in russia. he said there would be cyber attacks on banks here in the united states. now it is saying it will take place this spring. they will target roughly 30 different financial institutions, national banks, investment banks. what they do is they have a trojan and planted on your computer. it then allows them access to your password. then, they are transferring monies out. so far, according to mcafee, they have transferred money in test runs with this thing. what can you do to protect yourself, not much.

changing your password is not going to do it. he says the banks have to ramp up their security. banks are probably not completely ready for this attack. the banks are clearly getting ready for this event. the most important thing you can do, you have to check your bank account every day. things the banks can do include stuff like -- jpmorgan chase, they do not do it. up to the banks to increase their security. up to you to check your account. connell: you have been one of the people that has been telling

us for quite a while that we need to pay more attention to things like this. >> they are aware of the problem. i argue that they are not necessarily doing enough. security, traditionally and commercial sectors, the security operations of a company, it has usually been looked at as a cost they are improving their ability to work on this. this is a very interesting potential attack that could take place in the spring. the russians that are involved in this, that have been running, essentially, a pilot program, made the announcement a few months ago, that they would be mounting this massive campaign

against over two dozen financial institutions in an effort to draw and additional supporters. we want to recruit additional attackers. we will provide the software and you provide the additional boots on the ground, if it were. connell: the idea that we know it is being planned or we think we know it is being planned, what does that do in terms of preparation. >> it does give us some heads up. it allows the institutions to at least coordinate. as far as the consumer goes, and that is really what speaks to the viewers right now, there are other things that they can be

doing. always ensure that you have updated your software for security. you will occasionally get a pop-up window. yes, pay attention to that. pay attention to what your accounts are doing. other than that, being smart about the sites you are landing on, being smart about what that looks like, paying attention rather than just assuming when something pops up on your screen it is okay to click on it. we have to take our responsibilities for our own security. obviously, a lot of people do. how does it work, though, i know you are in this business, how does it work for the banks, what should they be doing.

>> banks have very sophisticated security programs. this particular attack, that we are talking about, it is also looking to supposedly attack a less sophisticated financial institution. they are not just talking about the big ones. the smaller institutions that don't necessarily have the it resources. what the banks do, typically, every day, 247, they are being probed. that is part of the problem we are facing. if the public knew how many potential attacks, how many probes our system, our infrastructure undergo every day, from the house side, whether it is hackers, whether it is state-sponsored, they

would not sleep at night. they are well aware of the dangers and the aggressiveness. you are always trying to stay one step ahead. they spend a great deal of time studying the previous attack. connell: thank you. dagen: mike that he was being interviewed by the. we tweeted about it. not so much. connell: that is great, dagen. thank you for pointing that out. dagen: well, instagram does say, you know, those photos that you post on the social feed, they really are not yours. we can use them for advertising if it so seems fit. mark folmer will have the opportunity to be interviewed by dagen, whether he wants to or not.

stock market is up. treasury yields are up. we will be right back. ♪ [ male announcer ] this is joe woods' first day of work. and his new boss told him twongs -- cook what you love, and save your money. joe doesn't know it yet, but he'll wk his way up from busser to waiter to chef before opening a restaurant specializing in fish and me from the great northwest. he'll start investing early, he'll find some good people to help guide him, nd he'll set money aside from his first day ofork to his last, which isn't rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade. can i still ship a gift in time r christmas? yeah, sure you can. great. where's your gift? uh...

whew. [ male announcer ] break from the holiday stress. ship fedex express by december 22nd for christmas delivery. >> i am lori rothman with your fox business brief. acquired bushmaster 2006 merging with other gun companies to create a freedom group. samsung withdrawing request against apple.

this after a federal judge yesterday denied apple to ban sales from apples styrofoam. turkey airlines placing a firm order. marking the country's single largest aircraft order. that is the latest from the fox business network. giving you the power to prosper. ♪

connell: to the breaking news. it is coming out of washington, d.c. the speaker of the house had a plan b, in terms of the fiscal cliff deal. the white house came out and said they reject plan b. dagen: again, one of the major differences, $400,000 cut off for a tax increase versus $1 million which is what the

house speaker had presented to the white house. it seems as if taxes, for at least some people, will go up. connell: now we have this story that we have been meaning to talk about. users of instagram, the company is claiming ownership of the photos. shibani: a bout of people are reaching the conclusion of not posting photos at all. it is so important to read that fine print. the photo sharing site instagram posting on its company blog, if you do not read the coopany blog, you will not find this out. the company is changing its privacy statement so i can make money off of the pictures whether you like it or not. you agree that a business or

other entity may pay us, basically anything that you put up there along with any associated metadata or action that you take with paid or sponsored content or promotions without any compensation to you. here is a good example of what could happen. you and your family are at applebee's having a dinner out. you post a picture on instagram. applebee's can go in turn and take instagram to use that photo in any way that it likes to. it does not have to pay you a cent for this. all of these changes will be taking effect on january 16. i always like to give you other options. there are lots of other names, sites like flickr, photo bucket, there are options out there.

dagen: you no longer own it. they own it. i bet they change that if there is enough outrage. shibani: eye that this is a story to be continued. connell: what at which, out of a instagram photo. dagen: i would never be photographed eating. it is just not pretty. dagen: thank you, shibani. connell: we really learned a lot today. stocks now. nicole: i am glad you don't work right here. they photographed the booth. sometimes, i am eating.

i am looking at goldman sachs. it was upgraded to a positive. the financials have really been stellar this month. goldman is up about 8%. citigroup is up about 13%. the trend is still to the upside. apple, of course, yesterday was 501 and change. amazon, new price target, $300. amazon is that 261. certainly, a wedding day. carnival cruise lines, you know what, that may be a buying opportunity. talk to you. dagen: thank you. connell: nobody loves gold like mark folmer.

he is coming up next. dagen: oh, lord. a toilet? if you forget to flush, there is an app for that. ♪

connell: more breaking news out of washington on this fiscal

cliff situation. the white house's position defies common sense after spending months we must ask more from the dinners and billionaires. how can they reject a plan by doing exactly that. the president threatening every american family with higher taxes. the spokesman for speaker boehner, thank you to him. rich edson will do some more reporting on it later. dagen: we always look for rays of sunshine wherever we go. we need some doom and gloom every now and then. we go to mark faber now. he is joining us on the phone. mr. faber, great to talk to you this morning. look at washington. what do you see? are you optimistic?

>> well, basically, i think that the global economy is slowing down considerably. we have possibly one or 2% growth. maybe no growth. we have a slowdown in asia. particularly, in china. there are some positive spots in the world. i was recently traveling in asia. this is a region, 250 million people. they will integrate and they will grow very rapidly. the problem is the stock markets have already done very well in asia from the lows in 2009. of 250%. a lot of positive news has already been discounted.

i think what has really changed in the world is -- that will be positive for japanese shares. also, if greece could rally by 80%, then, i think that china and vietnam can also rebound 30%. dagen: you have always liked gold. there was a story and the "wall street journal" today that a small number of pension funds in japan started to invest in gold for the very first time. very unusual. the beginning of something that could be bigger. >> yes. i am still positive. i will never sell my gold as long as people like mr. obama

and mr. bernanke are running economic policies and the ecb and other central banks are monetizing. we had a huge run in gold prices in 1999. we peeked more than a year ago at $1921. i still think we are in a corrections. we are 1675. i still think we may go somewhat lower before the next bull market gets underway. dagen: enjoy it wherever you are. >> i am on and ireland -- i am on and i.

dagen: thank you very much. be well. connell: i believe we are going to take a quick break. there is so much nonsense in washington. dennis and cheryl will be coming up with a response to the response of the response on the fiscal cliff. rich edson will solve the whole thing. ♪

dennis kneale. cheryl: i am cheryl casone. the white house says no thank you to the backup plan the house speaker sent through searching a second bill that would give everyone who makes the $1 million a break. >> our plan b would protect american tax payers who make $1 million or less and have all their current rates extended. cheryl: what is going on in the bill we? we will sort it out with a lot

report from washington with the least detail. dennis: housing market out of the basement. home builders confidence at its highest level is 6.5 years but tougher lending standards might change that. cheryl: holiday shopping season falling short for some stores. we will continue a week-long retail check coming that during the hour. dennis: at the top of the our stocks every 15 minutes but nicole petallides at stock exchange, we are a 75 on the dow. nicole: not bad at all. dow jones industrials above 13,300 so they are feeling pretty good right here, december has been a pretty decent month. we see financials jumping, many of them over 10%, names like morgan stanley and banc of america and citigroup switching to the upside, december traditionally is an up month, the best performing month for the s&p 500 when they trekked to the 1950s and we are watching every headline from washington.

rich edson will delve into a more. the hope of solving the fiscal cliff helps this market so every time we get closer to what we see an up arrow and when we see how far apart they are we get down arrow that is certainly the worry on wall street, right now you see the dow, the nasdaq and the s&p posting up arrows and the nasdaq and s&p over 1%. cheryl: we will get details from our commentators coming up. breaking news, details are coming in fast and furious in the last hour of markets now, the white house moment the rejecting john boehner's this booklet offer, the plan b. dennis: president obama will continue to work with republicans on finding a deal. rich edson is live with up-to-the-minute details. rich: aides say president obama and john boehner were getting close, the latest white house offer has slowed the progress. john boehner w

negotiations with the president in case they feel is introducing a backup plan to shield those earning less than $1 million the year from a tax increase. >> i think we all know every income tax filer in america is going to pay higher rates come january 1st unless congress acts. i believe it is important to protect as many american taxpayers as we can and our plan b would protect american tax payers who make $1 million less and have all of their current rates extended. rich: the backup plan leaves issues like billion in automatic spending cuts and resolved. senate majority leader harry reid says he opposes it. the white house says the plan fails to ask enough of the wealthiest in taxes. any statement the press secretary says the speaker's plan b approach doesn't meet the test because it can't pass the senate and will not protect middle-class families and does little to address our fiscal

challenges with zero spending cuts. to that, the speaker's office responding to the response says the white house position defies common sense after 7 months saying we have to ask more from millionaires and billionaires, how can they reject the plan does that? as for talks between the president and speaker president obama wants $300 billion more in tax revenue than the speaker. john boehner is willing to allow tax rate hike on those earning more than one million dollars. the president wants to send only those making less than $400,000. john boehner number once 1 shaun donovan spending cuts in the white house $930 billion. the house likely vote on this backup plan later this week. dennis: thanks, he may be back later with another update to this, but our next guest not happy with anything she has seen, nancy was a senior policy adviser in the 2008 campaign for john mccain and is president of media speaks strategies. you are saying for republicans

we are down to a choice between a bad deal and a worse deal. tell us which is which. >> i wouldn't give washington another dime based on how poorly they have controlled their spending appetites over the last decade. if you look at the difference between john boehner and president obama you are talking about one planned that spend an extra $40 trillion over the next decade and another plan that spent another $47 trillion over the next decade. neither is acceptable to the american people and frankly it is a failure of both parties. dennis: should we let it go off the cliff and let it happen or should be at a compromise to stop that happening? i don't thinn the cliff will be that bad. >> money we're talking about spending cuts and thhs is this much and this is that much, what they are not identifying is double counting what they are discussing now.

karen already has hundreds of billions of dollars of spending cuts in place. those cuts could go forward or you could hit those targets in a less formulaic fashion. no reason on earth they couldn't pass an extension of the current tax rates and work on real spending reform and real tax reform in the new year. i think it is a disaster for republicans to wrapping an automatic increase in the debt limit and that is where they loot the last day. dennis: now the president obama has said households 254 down, we raise taxes of people over 400 k. if you are republican why not take offer, raise the tax rate and let's get to the cuts? those are more important. the tax increase does not have to the real economy, does it? >> it doesn't have to derail the economy but i'm of the school of thought of why would we give these people in washington one more dime until they show us they have some ability to

restrain and out of control spending addiction? the same as my teenager saying i want you to raise my credit when it, absolutely not. they don't deserve more revenue. they need to reduce the level of spending. neither plan calls for a reduction in spending. when you look historically across nations that the countries that have come back from fiscal difficulties, it is by and large economic growth on their side thanks to countries that did it by leading with spending reductions, not increasing tax revenue. dennis: thank you very much for being with us. cheryl: the bottom line for investors is what is the fiscal cliff battle going to cost? chad morgan lander says it is too late, they have cost billions and going to continue to cost us in 2014, he is a portfolio manager, you say we are facing no matter what $250 billion price tag.

>> it will be a fiscal drag in 2013 between $150 billion to 250 but that is already baked into the traditional economist's assumptions for 2013. cheryl: you are also looking at different things. you are looking at the cliff and short-term trades and long term trade. wouldn't it be more of a market reaction based on the two sides getting closer to a deal? >> the market believes there will be a short-term yield before the end of the year, a mini bargain with the grand bargain down the road. cheryl: that is making? we are not seeing that right now. >> it is bake in but if they do get a deal, there should be a shot of adrenaline to the financial markets with the equity market's going higher. cheryl: the grand bargain, we are going to have to wait but markets would rally. the deal is struck by a grand bargain in 2013, that would be

another market positive. >> what you have happening in the u.s. economy is a fiscal drag in 2013 courtesy of the negotiations that are happening today but you also have some positives. you have credit creation, home prices going higher, first time since 2007, auto sales going higher, consumers stabilizing, delivered in a little bit but they are getting a more healthy and robust, that adds to the financial system. cheryl: what about ben bernanke? we had a big decision last week, they are continuing to buy into treasury's long-term anyway and going for mortgage-backed securities, $40 billion a month. they are in this game. >> the fed is a huge upside in their infinite wisdom they are every month purchasing $45 billion of treasuries and $40 billion of mortgages and another trillion dollars they had their balance sheet by 2013 and if you go by their

assumptions for 2014 they are going to continue to do quantitative easing which will add another trillion dollars. cheryl: your 2013 s and the target is important, 1525, overall, that is where we are going year from now. cheryl: financials will power that and the s&p as well. appreciate it. dennis: the sound bites on full display in the fiscal cliff negotiations and we bring you the latest developments throughout the hour. cheryl: we will be joined later in the show by the all-star panel talking about the fiscal cliff. the parties in washington have spoken. what do our all stars here have to say about it? >> in time for the holidays gas prices at the pump down even more. we are live at the cme ahead. cheryl: want to take a look speaking of gas prices taking a look at oil, a little bit of -- we're getting close to $90 a

barrel, 88 on the nose. we will be right back. markets now continues.

dennis: almost 15 past the hour every 15 minutes team coverage coming up. phil flynn in the trading pits of a cme and nicole on the floor of the stock exchange.

nicole: i have a winner. take a look at that, quarterly earnings, stock is up 3-1/4%, they expect shipments in the fourth quarter to be roughly flat compared to the third quarter and economic and political uncertainty continues to impact the buying patterns and they beat the street, flat at this moment not horrifying given up arrows, and let's look at major market averages up on the dow jones industrial average, up 74 points almost 1/2%, a ticketing nasdaq up 1%, tech stocks moving to the upside and the s&p a gainer. that is what we a seeing on the floor of the stock exchange on wall street. let's go down to chicago. >> santa claus is coming to

town. santa claus rally. oil prices rallying with the stocks going up. we did lose a little bit of momentum with john boehner coming out with plan b, the euro with 7 month highs and oil prices and gasoline and heating oil rallying, other big news on the oil front that is very supportive is the pipeline that will expand getting that landlocked oil out of oklahoma to the gulf of mexico, to other countries, and heating oil. the other thing we are concerned about is winter is coming back. the ten day forecast showing forecasts put temperatures below normal. that means natural gas getting close to a decade low rallying back up today, looks like winter is just in time for christmas. who would have thought? back to you. cheryl: phil flynn, nicole petallides, thank you. time for your west coast minute.

11.7 million are expected to travel in california this holiday season and that would be a new record. the automobile club with gas prices down and unemployment better, it will be the biggest travel season in six years if not ever. multiple sports put carl icahn, the american real car industry purchasing greenbrier company for $540 million. it is the primary investor in american rail cars which is not the first time to merge the two rail companies, doing so in 2008. the companies are trading a little bit of boards of $11and that is 6% on this. seattle startup says 15% of a typical office worker's day is spent on e-mail with 5% dealing with the reply at all e-mails. listen to this story.

responding to these is hurting productivity and could cost larger companies potentially tens of millions of dollars and that is your west coast minute. dennis: i can't figure out which is worse? 30% of the entire e-mail time is spent on copies where you are just copied or when you click on reply to wall and only meant to tell one person something and you tell 20 people your trashing one of them. cheryl: that is never good but that urge to hit reply all, think twice. dennis: i don't read that stuff anymore. i just delete it. stocking up, two about week-long series ahead, how you can prosper from video games this holiday season. cheryl: it could be the only documentary to get an adult rating. martin scorsese getting ready to cut the light of current president bill clinton on film. as we go to break here of how the world currencies are staring. the u.s. dollar in the euro again getting stronger.

>> 20 minutes past the hour, your fox news minute. at this hour funerals are being held for two more victims of friday's shoot them this pool shooting, family and friends paying their respects, both were just 6 years old day wake will be held for the teacher hailed a hero for sacrificing her life savings several students, family and friends, paying their respects to 25-year-old victoria. school back in session in newtown, conn. school district trying to pick up the pieces several days after a gunman killed 26 people there. local and state police were on hand as students arrived this morning. virginia senator mark warner is reconsidering its opposition to assault weapons ban. drawing calls from several lawmakers including connecticut senator joe lieberman urging stiffer regulations on gun control. that is a quick look at your

headlines. cheryl: thank you very much. privately firm under pressure from the california state teachers retirement system, it will sell its stake in the freedom group, of firearmsmaker that includes the manufacturer of one of the guns used in the connecticut shooting. walmart, one of the largest sellers of firearms in this country halting online sales, dick's sporting goods says it will remove all guns from its stores and suspend sales of semiautomatic rifles from all of its stores. dennis: stocking up in part ii of our week-long series, winners and losers this holiday season from the gamemakers and sellers, how much they care in the wake of the connecticut treating and criticism of violent video games. thanks for being with us. a big horrible tragedy like this happens and shares of take 2 interactive take a hit and they

did right after this. >> that is the one that does get hit when we talk about having legislators talk about potential regulation of violent video games. there are several publishers who make violent games, take 2 has more dominated by them and the poster child is grand theft auto which should be coming out the first half of next year. that is where players take the role of a bad guy and essentially indiscriminately kill anybody you want. there are consequences but that is the one that typically gets blamed. in this particular case call of duty is the game that will take more heat as a military shooter. [talking over each other] dennis: just warfare. might be less mimicked but statistically i was looking at a chart today that shows while the u.s. spends only half as much per-capita on video games, south korea, our rate of murders,

gunshot murders per 100,000 people is over three murders per 100,000 and south korea zero. not really video games causing killings. >> i think it is crazy people who commit these types of acts. i think there's something more wrong with our society in that we have so many crazy people. i don't think video games are an instructional manual how to commit a crime. i think they are entertainment in the same way that violent movies are entertainment and books that depict violent acts that tend not to get blamed for these types of things. i am with you. we have a greater societal problem with crazy people out there. dennis: let's talk holiday outlook, stocks you like, two players, are paired with a big loser, you like electronic arts and game stop, the retailer, best buy could be the big loser, start with eat a. >> has a pretty diverse lineup.

they have taken their loss so the game that are not working which are star wars:the old republic which has been a disaster all year and that will honor which came out in october was a big bomb, those were behind when they got there at dated guidance and got certain numbers, one of my competitors lowered his estimate today, he is pessimistic fable never saw anything again and i think he is wrong. the company is well positioned and they have a phenomenal line of next year so they will participate next year in a rebounding game sales, there for 2014. dennis: retailer game stop. i would have thought those guys would be put out of business by digital download. >> it is funny, digital download have not put anybody out of business yet, like red box going nice and strong and netflix and dvd business has nine million customers so people rent physical movies and digital download are available everywhere. the recording industry association says there were two

forty-five billion sold in the u.s. in 2011 so we are still buying cds. i would not worry about physical game is going away for a least another 10 or 15 years. dennis: we will leave it there with those positive picks. michael acker of wedbush securities. tomorrow we will highlight winners and losers and luxury retail for the week-long series stocking up. cheryl: the house speaker says the president is moving the goalposts again. we will have more on the backup plan to the fiscal cliff crisis and why the president is still saying no. dennis: adopt 87, home builder confidence meanwhile at its highest level in 6-1/2 years, cover living standards could change that. let's take a look at today's winners on the s&p.

nicole: i am nicole petallides on the floor of the stock exchange, up arrows across the board. let's take a look every 15 minutes at stocks, let's look at a name that is a winner and it is jefferies coming out here, adjusted for a quarter profits and did better than the investment bank with higher-income from the fixed-income unit. it is up $0.53 at 1877 and that is a gain of nearly 3%. we obscene stocks doing quite well over the last couple days bringing to the main point which is the markets said doing really well. the dow jones industrials up 86 points, that is a gain of 1/2%. the nasdaq up 1.1% and the s&p

500 up nearly 1%. the dow at 13,322 and the majority of dow component to the green which shows you there's broad based buying underway. that is the latest at the stock exchange. let's see what is going on in chicago, phil flynn. cheryl: we have breaking news coming in. dennis: house republicans going to leading at 5:00 eastern as the fiscal cliff fallout continues and bring their parachute. cheryl: all of this after the backup plan was quickly rejected by the white house. rich edson joining us once again from washington with the latest developments. rich: getting more details about the backup plan so there are two tracks, john boehnee and president obama will work on a larger bipartisan budget compromise. republicans will vote on that back up plan. is a bill to shield those earning less than $1 million the year from tax increases and

leaves other reissues like spending cuts and resolve the. the speakers as the only reason he is introducing a backup plan, the president's latest debt deal falls short. >> we look to find the answer to solve the problem on the spending issue in washington. the president is not yet there, he has not come to where he needs to be forced to put through a bill that really does begin to drive the problem. rich: aides expect the backup plan to be voted on later this weekend if it passes and the senate considers it, harry reid says john boehner's plan is the farthest thing from a balanced approach. will not protect middle-class families because it cannot pass both houses of congress. as for the bipartisan talks the president and speaker remain a few and billion dollars apart on spending cuts, tax increases and how much to raise the debt ceiling. dennis: what is a few hundred

billion between france? coming up on our all-star panel, stop dithering in washington and get a deal done? cheryl: there's more hope for housing recovery. the national cessation of home builders now with the latest survey showing home builder confidence at its highest level since april of 2006. joining me is the ceo of the n h b and a lot of analysts were looking for that 50 mark and the index breaking through and what happened? >> just like everybody else, our members are watching the fiscal cliff discussions and potential implications of raising taxes on small businesses, small-businesses the 70% of the everybody else we are holding our breath and hovering just below 50%. cheryl: what do you remember about the mortgage interest deduction? that is on the table in the fiscal cliff, and you worry

about housing? >> absolutely. with this recovery in release stages we are concerned about anything that would kill the markets and raising taxes on small business, and when the signs are positive, just a little more cautious than we thought. cheryl: the three different components of the index, and they're above the 50 mark which is a positive sign for housing. and what will the next six months ago also had 51 and when it comes to buyer traffic there v-6, it we are not seeing meaningful traffic coming into these builders show rooms? >> that is indicative of a fact the job recovery has been slow, job recovery is growing, better than it has been but nowhere near the 50 mark. cheryl: one of the things we're doing is the trading year, looking at a lot of big

commodity contracts. a couple things are interesting for your members, but the copper contracts, those are rising in particular went comes to lumber. prices really jumping. a lot of lumber manufacturers went out of business during the recession. how concerned are builders about the cost of building these new homes? will they pass that on to the consumer? >> we are concerned about increased material costs and on the lumber side we are talking about an industry that has shut down a lot, their ability to produce will take awhile to ramp up so there could be some supply shortages and price increases in lumber. same with copper. the good news is some of the export problems we had worked going overseas, don't seem to be as troublesome as they have in the past so we are hopeful there will be a balancing out but just as hopeful the lumber dealers and timberland will get their business back on line as quickly as possible. cheryl: got to go to the

is leading went comes to build confidence and the northeast is dragging when it comes to builder confidence. any new insight in regions for the month of december? >> the midwest is one that has been sort of a steady component all along. they were not as high as the rest of the region or during the recession. and the northeast is lower, availability and foreclosures and it is a reaction to hurricane sandy. cheryl: we had some worries in the economy, thank you very much. happy holidays, looking forward to the january number. >> see you in january. happy new year. dennis: forget the fiscal cliff kabuki theater and just chirrup. my apologies to the french,

happy to help you celebrate, see how sales are doing. cheryl: that is the latest, and martin scorsese ready to take on the wife of president bill clinton in a new documentary. and take a look at the ten year treasury. we will be right back.

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the memo from the fast-food giant obtained by advertising aids. the spokeswoman saying the company brought in $72 million in sales with numerous franchisees. mcdonald's reported similar results, a new survey suggesting half of the people around world think the global economy will improve in 2013. it looks optimistic, indian civilians and indonesian's with 3-quarters turning around. fox business giving it power to prosper. pontial for making or losing money can pop up anytime. that's why she trades with the leader in mobilerading. so she's always rdy to take action, no matter how wily... or weird... or wonderfully the market's behaving... which isn't rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade.

can i still ship a gift in time r cistmas? yeah, sure you can. great. where's your gift? uh... whew. [ male announcer ] break from the holiday stress. ship fedex express by december 22nd for christmas delivery. cheryl: call it the most wonderful time of the rear, coming in in the fourth quarter. new u.s. ceo brian fry, a third of sales happening. are you on track right now? >> november and december, we

love this time of year. in december, the champagne for example, 20% of yourselves for the year. cheryl: your australian but you just came from brazil running operations there. what did you learn from the south american market which has a huge influence on decisionmaking? >> it is not very different. not a lot of huge similarities but what is interesting is brilliant -- brazilians take a lot of cues from the u.s. up from brazil is quite interesting. cheryl: you depend heavily on bartenders. that is one of the places you focus your marketing because you know the bartenders are ones that create the drink -- >> absolutely. the most important people in the world for us. we spend a lot of time working

with them and they do great things and jamison is a low branch by the bartenders and people see that. cheryl: it is a 20% for the last year. and the line of drinks, the new premium stiles like malibu red, is it mixed together? >> the hip-hop star, we created the tequila and rum combination which is working great for the malibu brand but also doing a lot of things. the black is a high prove malibu. cheryl: stronger alcohol and also the regular malibu room which is tracking. you have champagne and wine and all of that. obviously the effect of the recession hurt some of the brands, conglomerate name is

good to using this share will be one of the better years? >> if you look at the consumer confidence brought down on the premise, bars and restaurants going faster, it is up 7.2% and premium tequila, and jamison growing well, and the champagne brands, also firing along nicely. cheryl: you just got into the job for the u. s a portion to see what you do in 2013 to give an update. brian fry, brand new to the job, thank you for coming in and happy holidays. over to you. dennis: a surprise deal to buy at -- nielsen will pay $1.2 billion, 26% premium over the closing price yesterday.

that stock up 40%, so ends one of the longest-running rivalries in the ratings business, nielsen retreated years ago to radio, what they have to say? me at outlets elsewhere working there line ups after the tragedy in connecticut -- and the best funeral ever, abc yanked the finale of scandal from the abc.com, the discovery channel dropped a show with bad timing title of american guns and viacom's paramount delaying the saturday in pittsburgh for the next tom cruise action film which focuses on a sniper. leslie time heals all sandals. reminded of documentary on president clinton to be directed by morton's -- martin scorsese, cooperating by bill clinton, one of the few documentaries or perhaps the only one to get an adult rating of nc-17. cheryl: can't imagine why that

would happen. dennis: a quarter till, stocks every 15 minutes. stocks rallying. nicole: moving session highs, dow jones industrials up 120 points. you can see the dollar up 0.9% and the s&p and nasdaq trading more than 1%, take a look at the dow winners but i can tell you, of rally under re, a lot of folks trying to chase this market, a lot of optimism for changing the fiscal cliff and positive news to a certain extent, people i just chasing it at this point trying to get on a rally. taking a look at the s&p 500 years today switches 15% and i want to touch on it, going into the back half of the year, there is the year to date, year-to-date the s&p 500 is up 14%. the s&p 14%, the nasdaq 17%, the dow is up 9%.

at the end of the year right here a lot of folks are saying you are on wall street. cheryl: next year could be better. thank you very much. see you at the top of the hour. coming up we will have a fox business all stars talking about the fiscal cliff debate. charles and david will give us their take on d.c.'s battle. cheryl: dennis: let's look at today's winners on the nasdaq. ...so as you can see, geico's customer satisfaction is at 97%.

mmmm tasty. and cut! very good. people are always asking me how we make thesgeico adverts. so we're taking you behind the scenes. this coffee cup, for example, is computer animated. it'sot real. geico's customer satisfaction is quite real though. this computer-animated coffee tastes dreaul. geic 15 minutes could save you 15 % or more on car insurance. someone get me a latte will ya, please?

dennis: that unending dance continues in washington over the looming fiscal cliff. cheryl: the fox business all stars, david asman and charles payne in new york, sandra smith joining us from the cme. i want to focus on a million dollars threshold and one of the things that is market reaction, we get more of a boost out of all of this. sandra: a lot of the traders are just got done talking to are looking at the gains we are getting today saying this is giving them an indication the market thinks there will be a deal done by the end of the year. general consensus according to the traders i have spoken to is there's going to be a deal for over a 400,000, less than the one million dollars threshold and some sort of deal fair and one thing i want to point out is i was talking to somebody from the futures pit, art and no one has identified the fact about

only do we have the fed news last week, not the fiscal cliff this week, those could be a lot of reactions to the fact that many funds in this are under invested in the stock market, over invested in the bond market and if it starts to look like we would get a deal by the end of the year you a lot more buying in the stock market, we are getting that today. dennis: charles payne, the dow 115 and traders saying there's already a settlement. charles: negotiations going back and forth more furiously than any time in the last couple weeks. i agree with sandra and rose a big piece of that, pension-fund everyone is underinvested and taxes going up and the only place to be that is the stock market. negotiating 500,000 but the key to this is the debt ceiling. the market is more afraid of the debt ceiling debate that came up, and that is the downgrades the based on the debt ceiling john mainers offering a year,

and the stock market is -- [talking over each other] dennis: nancy pelosi accepted john boehner's deal. not last year but this year, quoting from a letter that nancy pelosi wrote to john boehner and she said, quote, democrats believe tax cuts for those earning $1 million a year should expire and we should use the resulting revenue to pay down the deficit. that is exactly the john boehner plan. nancy pelosi already agreed a. [talking over each other] sandra: who says we are bearing the lead? that is the primary reason most traders, nancy pelosi agreed to this. that is why their saying markets are point that deal will get done. >> even to accept higher rates of earnings over $1 million and this would make the economy go

to shambles if we raise taxes on the ridge. dave: the concession john boehner made and a lot of people, tea party republicans would not go for the $1 million threshold because they say any way you keep feeding the beast, government apatite is bad. he will have trouble with tea party republicans, and they may get hat million dollar threshold dawn so there will be democrat and republican than a majority of them will agree to this plan. cheryl: many market analysts have said taxes will go up. end and they are expecting this to happen. they are advising people to ptructure their portfolio. charles: dividends are 44%, bond market ten year yield is up big time and gold free-fall in. maybe the only place to go but the republicans lost this debate

along time ago. nothing about spending and the best they can scrape out of this is a compromise -- too easily. charles: gold has not been soaring. dennis: i thought when there was fear that gold goes up. nicole: it is down $21, looking at $1,677 a troy ounce. we have been talking about gold, all these folks say gold is over these levels and now it is proved, in times of uncertainty, consider the save haven play for the stock market but this is another sign the market and traders are talking about they hire going to get a deal to get the uncertainty stuff out of the market and people sell gold and they buy equities. dave: there's a story about market watch and $2 an ounce on the other end of the gold bugs the market was flat when we were on stuart varney today, it was

basically flat. wasn't until this deal came through that the market picked up in triple digits. cheryl: i was watching you and was great to have charles payne and sandra smith, thank you for coming by. >> melissa frances and lori rothman are going to continue our coverage of the debt crisis talks in washington and neil cavuto will join us in a few minutes. dennis: melissa and glory are up next.